In February three years ago, just days before Ryo Ishikawa was to make his PGA Tour debut at Riviera Country Club, some grumpy guy wrote this about the then-17-year-old from Japan:

What a joke.

When will golf learn? How many more Ty Tryons and Michelle Wies and Tadd Fujikawas do we have to endure before people get a grip on the fact this game is monumentally difficult at the professional level, and that it takes more than stringing a few good rounds together to make a career of it.

When will sponsors and endorsers and tournament directors cease at abetting these misguided kids and their greedy parents from going down such a twisted path?

Man, was that guy wrong.

That guy was me.

Ishikawa is playing in the Farmers Insurance Open that begins today, and it will be his first competitive round on the South Course since he competed in the Callaway Junior World Championships in 2007. He got smoked in the tournament, lost by 16 shots to South African Dylan Fritelli, who’s now a senior at Texas.

And that tinged a certain writer’s view of a kid who didn’t seem nearly ready to join the big boy players of the world, even if Ishikawa had won a Japan Tour event at the age of 15. It didn’t help that after his first round of 75 in the Junior World he begged off interviews by saying he needed to take a nap.

It’s not a Diaper Derby on the tour. This is the real thing.

But to Ishikawa’s credit, he’s grown up fast, because he’s had to, of course.

He is 20 years old, an adult in his own country. He can order a drink at the bar. And despite the weight of a large island on his shoulders and smothering media attention, he has managed to mature nicely as a person and a player.

Ishikawa has 10 wins in professional events, nine of which came on the Japan Tour. In 2009, he became the youngest player to reach the top 50 in the world rankings. Now 51st in the world, Ishikawa has played on two International teams in the Presidents Cup and has twice won in singles, beating Kenny Perry in 2009 and Bubba Watson in ’11.

There is an abundance of evidence that Ishikawa has skills. Now it’s just a matter of him elevating them at the right time. He is not a member of the PGA Tour, so he has to rely on World Golf Championships appearances and sponsors’ invitations to earn enough money to get on the circuit full time.

Ishikawa badly wants to again be in the Masters, but because he wasn’t top 50 in the world when the year ended, he’ll likely have to earn a spot there, too. He played the first time at Augusta on an invitation when he was 17.

So these are critical times, because after four full years of toiling in the relative minor leagues, Ishikawa very much wants to be in the majors on a regular basis.

“Hopefully next year or this year, if I play well, maybe I will get my card,” Ishikawa said through an interpreter after playing a practice round at Torrey Pines last weekend. “I’ll do my best to get on the PGA Tour.”

The pressure is mounting to produce more.

There isn’t a player in the States other than Tiger Woods who faces the kind of daily scrutiny Ishikawa does. Like Tiger, he is just “Ryo” in most headlines.

Reiko Takekawa, a Los Angeles-based writer for a Japanese sports publication, is among a handful of Asian reporters who this week will speak to Ishikawa after every practice session and competitive round. No golfer here does that, including Woods.

“Stories have to be filed on Ryo every day,” Takekawa said. “The reporters have to justify the expense for being here.”

There were hundreds from the Asian media who covered Ishikawa’s debut at the Northern Trust in L.A. three years ago. The madness has lightened somewhat because he didn’t have a great year in 2011 on the Japan Tour. For the first time as a pro Ishikawa failed to win a tournament and finished third on the money list.

“I feel more pressure now,” Ishikawa admitted. “I didn’t win last year and every year the media expectations keep getting higher.”

He added, “Now I recognize how difficult it is to win.”

Humility is an admirable trait, and Ishikawa said he doesn’t consider himself to be in the same echelon as a Rory McIlroy. Then again, the Irishman is nearly two years older and might even be shaving now. For the kid golfers these days, months are like dog years in their development.

Ishikawa deserves the space and time to succeed. Writers get mulligans, right?